I am, by no means, an expert on this subject. I'm doing my bachelor's degree on procedural generation of makam music, and as such, I'm recording my research here to better understand what I'm doing, and maybe provide an English-language resource for theoretical underpinnings of the makam system for people who don't speak Turkish.
Traditional Turkish music is a broad field encompassing various styles, the most important of which are classical music and folk music. We will be studying the classical variety, which has been significantly influenced by Arabic, Persian and Greek musical systems, and developed into a complex musical framework throughout centuries. Also, we will be ignoring rhythmic and vocal aspects of it for the time being, to focus on its instrumental elements.
Turkish classical music is heterophonic — it features various monophonic instruments in the ensemble playing different variations of the same melody.
WIP